High resolution, multi-material deposition of tissue engineering scaffolds

健康治疗的下一代变化将是定制人工植入物与患者自身细胞相结合，以取代患病或受损的组织和器官。通过在体外模拟某些身体系统的复杂组织模型，也将在药物研究方面取得进展。有了这些模型，我们将能够减少对动物试验的需求，并对药物对细胞功能的影响有更深入的了解。为了实现这些变化，我们需要一种制造技术，能够适应更广泛的生物材料选择，并结合特征尺寸、结构和功能方面的复杂性。该项目旨在开发一种新的生物材料制造技术，可以以可控、可扩展的方式将不同的材料元素加工成一个相当大的支架。构型将被调整以适应生物材料的最终反应动力学。该技术将展示(a)纤维结构的亚微米打印分辨率（与现有的数十微米3d打印相比），(b)纤维成分和间隙凝胶成分的共打印能力，(c)适合大规模制造大量生物材料库，而无需修改天然材料化学。最终，这种新的生物材料制造技术将实现可重复的、自动化的多功能生物材料支架的创建，以支持软组织再生。据信，所提出的技术将促进个性化支架部件的制造，从而为公众提供更有效的治疗。

The next generational change in health treatment will be the tailoring of artificial implants in combination with a patient's own cells to replace diseased or damaged tissues and organs. There will also be development in drug research through the creation of complex tissue models in vitro that mimic certain body systems. With these models we will be able to reduce the need for animal testing and provide a deeper understanding of the impact of drugs on cell function. To undertake these changes, one requires a fabrication technique that can accommodate a wider choice of biomaterials, combined with delivery of complexity in terms of feature size, structure and functionalities. This project aims to develop a new biomaterial fabrication technique which can process different material elements into a sizable scaffold in a controllable, scalable manner. The configuration will be tailored to fit the ultimate reaction kinetics of the biomaterial. This technique will exhibit (a) a sub-micron printing resolution of fibrous structures (vs. tens of micron of the existing 3-D printing), (b) ability to co-print both fibrous components and interstitial gel components, (c) suitability for scaled-up fabrication of a vast biomaterial library without needing to modify the native material chemistry. Ultimately, this new biomaterial fabrication technique will enable the reproducible, automated creation of multi-functional biomaterial scaffolds to support soft tissue regeneration. It is believed that the proposed technique will facilitate the fabrication of personalised scaffold parts, thus enabling more effective treatment available to the general public.